For whatever reason, Bloodborne Remastered still hasn’t happened, and FromSoftware’s gothic horror masterpiece is still trapped exclusively on the PlayStation 4. Except it isn’t. Thanks to emulator ShadPS4, the brilliant parry-happy soulslike is playable on PC, and it’s even playable on Steam Deck.
Bloodborne has long been the de facto game for the budding PlayStation 4 emulator, and it’s been one of the main driving forces to improving the software. While Bloodborne has been playable, it’s now much improved with the release of the emulator’s latest version 0.12.6 update.
Available to download here, the Windows, MacOS and Linux program has seen performance boosts that almost double your framerate in Bloodborne. Tabeneru, a YouTuber that showcases emulator improvements between versions, showed that the new emulator almost doubles performance at 1440p, jumping from around 43 frames-per-second in one area up to 80 frames-per-second.
In one scene, at 2:50 in the video, Bloodborne via ShadPS4 jumps from 47 frames-per-second all the way up to 114 frames-per-second. That’s a 142% increase in performance between builds.(I’ve even put it in bold because it’s so impressive.) It’s also worth noting that Bloodborne on PS4 and even PS5 is locked to 30FPS, and also has annoying frame-pacing issues that are fixed via fan patches on the emulator.
While that jump is impressive alone, the latest version of ShadPS4 has also seen major improvements to the game on Steam Deck. YouTuber Deck Wizard showed the game running on a Steam Deck OLED with the new ShadPS4 patch, and it now performs admirably on Valve’s handheld-that-could.
Just 10 months ago in an earlier video, Bloodborne on the Steam Deck OLED was running between 20 and 30fps at all times, largely resting in the mid-20s. However, with this new update, the YouTuber’s new video shows that the game can now run as high as 50fps, but there are significant drops down to the 30s during high-intensity moments.
Nevertheless, with a frame-rate lock of 30fps, Bloodborne is now just as playable on a portable Steam Deck as it is on PlayStation 4, and the use of lossless scaling and emulator settings tweaks means it can look even better. If you’re unbothered by a very fluctuating framerate, which many are, then leave it unlocked and have a blast!
Of course, ShadPS4 is only going to improve as time goes on, and we should be able to see even more games become playable on the software. Right now, on Linux, just 92 PlayStation 4 titles are playable via the emulator according to its compatibility list with many games failing to boot or experiencing other issues.
Despite this, it’s still fantastic to see how far PS4 emulation has come, and it’s even more fantastic to see Sony’s console running games on a portable SteamOS machine. (And yes, this should mean that Bloodborne will be very playable on the upcoming Steam Machine!)
